Self-study
The Biocarb Company wants to build a sterilization plant to treat contaminated medical waste in a city neighborhood where residents and environmental activists fear that such a facility will pollute the area. █████████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ █████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████
Summary
The Biocarb Company’s president concludes that a new sterilization plant will not cause pollution. Why not? Because the medical waste treated at the plant will be sterilized by exposure to superheated steam until it is cleaner than food could ever be.
Notable Assumptions
The president broadly assumes that there won’t be any potential sources of pollution from operating the plant, other than waste which has been fully sterilized. For example, there won’t be byproducts from the process of running the plant’s autoclave which could constitute pollution.
The president also assumes that the waste won’t pose a risk of pollution even after sterilization, for example if it contains plastics or heavy metals that might be harmful despite being free of pathogen contamination.
14.
The president's argument depends on █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████
a
Environmental activists believe ████ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ████████
Whether or not the president’s argument holds up doesn’t depend on what the environmental activists believe, so this is not necessary.
b
Handling of the █████ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ █ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ █████
This falls under the broad assumption that there aren’t potential pollution risks other than the fully sterilized waste. If this were negated, and the handling of unsterilized waste posed a threat of pollution, the premises about sterilization couldn’t support the conclusion.
c
Fear of pollution ██ ███ ████ ████████ ███████ ████████████ ██ ██ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████
The argument isn’t about the overall cost-benefit of the factory, just about whether it poses a pollution risk, so the presence or absence of other arguments is irrelevant.
d
No others besides █████████████ █████████ ███ █████████ █████ █████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██████
Any beliefs that people do or don’t have about the factory wouldn’t affect the president’s argument, which is about material reality, so this is not necessary either way.
e
Treatment by superheated █████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████████████
As long as the waste will reliably be sterilized, it doesn’t matter whether steam treatment is the surest method or just a very, very sure method. In other words, this isn’t necessary to assume.